


our city

by lunarlunch



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-13
Updated: 2014-07-13
Packaged: 2018-02-08 15:19:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1946112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunarlunch/pseuds/lunarlunch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pakunoda and Uvogin meet again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	our city

**Author's Note:**

> a revised version of the story i posted to tumblr. i've always been fascinated by the idea of purgatory and this series has (unfortunately) given me an opportunity to play around with it.

She woke up on a cot she hadn’t slept on since she was a teenager. 

 

As she sat up, its legs wobbled and the cloth threatened to rip apart under her weight. She ignored it, as she always had, and scanned the shack’s dim interior. The table she had spent an afternoon re-painting and a shelf that had held once-treasured items were nowhere to be seen. When she set her feet on the ground, her toes brushed dry earth rather than the worn down carpet she had carefully laid down. It wasn't this loss of all her material belongings that unnerved her - she had accepted long ago that the city's residents would take them once she had left. It was the absence of sound, silence that made the room seem darker, smaller, and sent her running out the door into blinding sunlight before she could be trapped by it.

 

Using the arm she had broken just hours before to shield her eyes, she began to head down the street. Around her, the air was heavy with the stench of baking garbage. Although the outlines of the buildings around her were hazy from the heat, her skin remained cool. When she breathed in the dirt being blown about by the wind, she couldn’t taste it, nor did she struggle to swallow its gritty texture. Worst of all, the silence from the shack had followed her outside. As she entered cramped alleyways or climbed the occasional trash heap, she kept her guard up, but she never heard footsteps or the rustling of clothes, whether they were hers or someone else’s.

 

She was beginning to accept that she was the sole resident of the city when she made the final turn into their old meeting place and found Uvogin sitting in his usual spot, arms crossed and legs open. She froze and, for a moment, he looked equally as shocked. Then the muscles of his arms flexed as he clenched his fists and a low growl filled the enclosed space.

 

“Paku! Don’t tell me that chain bastard got you too!”

 

Before she could stop herself, Pakunoda lowered her gaze and placed her hand over her heart, whose beating had been replaced with a dull ache.

 

“In a way,” she answered.

 

Uvogin merely glared at her, waiting for more, and so Pakunoda continued, her head now held high and and with more confidence in her voice.

 

“The chain guy captured Chrollo,” she said. “The only way to get him back alive was to agree to his conditions.”

 

“Well, you obviously didn’t do that,” he replied. “What about Chrollo?”

 

“He lost his nen and was forbidden to contact us.”

 

Uvogin spit on the ground and muttered a few curses about their adversary before adding, “You should’ve never bargained with him.”

 

As he spoke, Pakunoda swore she could feel energy pressing against her back. If she turned around, would she see Chrollo standing above them, his head blocking the sun and creating that halo she had seen in her youth? Would his eyes be blank as he waited for her defense, or already disappointed? The thought was worse than anything Uvogin could hurl at her. 

 

“The others will take care of it,” she finally said.

 

“They’d better.”

 

Then Uvogin was on his feet, hunched over and punching his open palm. “I want them to send that chain bastard here when they’re done. All I’ve been thinking about is how I’m going to make him suffer. I’m going to start by crushing his hand and then work my way bone by bone until I reach the other one!”

 

As Uvogin began to describe how he would tear out the boy’s heart, Pakunoda walked over to a box and sat down. When they were alive, she had been mostly indifferent to his rants, but at the moment she was grateful for his behavior. Not only did it distract her from her worries, but it was familiar, almost comforting. A piece of home in a now strange land.

 

With a glance towards the hideout’s entrance, she prayed that she would be the only one to think that.


End file.
